In light of the Vicarage Road centenary celebrations earlier this season, writers from The Watford Treasury magazine look back at players who performed great feats on home soil.
First featured in last season’s matchday programme, Mike Raggett writes about the long-serving defender who quickly became a favourite with Vicarage Road fans on and off the pitch.
“We’ve got Lloydinho!” was the chant that marked Lloyd Doyley’s acceptance as a fans’ favourite and a reference to one manager’s description of his ball skills as Brazilian-style. His runs down the right wing were also frequently accompanied by cries of “Shoot!”
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In his other popular nomenclature, Lloydy joined the Watford Academy at the age of nine and played at various age levels before making his first-team debut in 2001. He came on as a replacement for Pierre Issa, who had the misfortune first to dislocate his shoulder and then be tipped unceremoniously from the stretcher while being carried off in front of the Rookery. This meant that Doyley’s entry from the halfway line scarcely registered.
A rather more stunned silence greeted his biggest moment in a Watford shirt – that goal! As Doyley himself described it: “Any time I got past the halfway line people were screaming at me to shoot. Then I did get into the box and scored with a diving header. It went quiet for a second. I thought I must have been offside – I didn’t know what was going on.”
The club and supporters did, and within a week the first 200 run of a commemorative t-shirt had sold out. The front said: “I was there when Lloyd scored!”, and the back carried his stats:
269 Games. 9 Seasons. 1 Goal.
Monday December 7, 2009
I Was There
Lloyd Colin Doyley was born in Whitechapel in 1982, and through his parents was eligible to play for Jamaica, which he did on nine occasions. In some of these matches he played alongside fellow Hornet Adrian Mariappa. Doyley has good reason to bear a grudge against his international teammate. On Valentine’s Day 2012 he received his first red card as a professional. A foul was committed just outside the penalty area by Mariappa but it was Doyley who was sent off by the referee – and there was no rectifying protest from Adrian. Happily, the red card was rescinded very rapidly. Lloydy and Mapps remain friends.
His second goal came at Bolton in 2013, when what everyone thought was intended as a cross went in off the back post. Doyley later admitted on Hive Live that it had been meant as a cross, but added that: “I did do it twice that day and the first one hit the crossbar!”
With 449 games for the club, Doyley is the longest-serving player in recent history and fifth overall. Ahead of him are only Luther Blissett, Duncan Welbourne, Gary Porter and Nigel Gibbs – illustrious company indeed. During his many years with Watford, Doyley fell out of favour with some of the numerous new managers he encountered but somehow – maybe just because he was a superb defender, at right-back or in the centre – he always found his way back into the team.
One of those managers, Beppe Sannino, expressed his thoughts about Lloyd: "My dream is to have the chance to manage players like Lloyd Doyley, who is born with this club and is a part of this club. Lloyd is a great, great man and a great, great professional - he is a gentleman. He is always ready whenever I call upon him."
Doyley’s service to the club was recognised on August 4, 2012 with a testimonial against Spurs at which he took to the pitch through a guard of honour, and was substituted before the end to a standing ovation.
But Doyley was also an immense presence off the pitch. His many appearances at Community Sports & Education Trust events have engaged people across the age range from schools to the Golden Memories sessions for dementia sufferers. I was fortunate enough to interview Lloyd for the Trust’s 25th anniversary book where he said of his involvement: “In one school there was a boy with a serious illness and ever since, I’ve remembered him, always said hello to him. You build a lot of relationships like that and you always see people about in Watford. I always think if you just go out of your way to say hello, it makes their day.”
Memories of Doyley harrying opposition wingers and forwards, passing out from the back both long and short balls, admittedly with some variation in accuracy, his unswerving loyalty to the club he joined as a young boy and of course that goal against QPR mark Lloyd Doyley out as a true Home Ground Hero.
